“So, if Chen Xiao is his son, then I…” Phoenix’s voice was more like crying.
...
...
At the end of the corridor, JOKER seemed to casually wave his hand at a wall, and a door appeared in front of the two of them without warning.
"Is this place alright?" JOKER asked with a smile, gently pushing the door open.
Chen Xiao was stunned the moment he stepped into the room!
Behind the walls that looked like LCD screens, the room inside was a place that Chen Xiao was extremely familiar with!
In a space of just over ten square meters, there is a warm-toned wooden floor, a heavy oak bookshelf, and a notebook with a leather cover lying quietly on a desk, with a fountain pen resting on a pen holder.
And there was a single sofa near the window, and on the coffee table next to it, a brass ashtray. Even the dark gray curtains on the windowsill were almost exactly the same as I remembered!
Chen Xiao stood blankly at the door, not even noticing when the door behind him had closed. His hands began to tremble, and then his whole body began to tremble uncontrollably!
"Unexpected?" JOKER stood by the desk, reached out and took the pen on the table, gently turning the cap.
"You... this place, you deliberately set it up?" Chen Xiao stared at JOKKER in disbelief.
JOKER's eyes were smiling. At that moment, Chen Xiao even felt a long-lost warmth in his eyes. In fact, the word "Dad" was on the tip of his tongue and he almost shouted it out.
Finally, Chen Xiao took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. He deliberately put on a stern face and asked, "Why did you decorate this place like our study at home?"
JOKER didn't answer. He casually twirled the cap of his pen: "I remember when you were little, you often liked to sneak up at the door, peek at me through the crack, then run in, hug my leg, and ask me to take you for a walk by the lake."
JOKER's voice is very gentle.
Chen Xiao's eyes reddened.
"Also, you like to climb onto that sofa by the window. Once you fell off and hit your head on the ground, and your forehead was bleeding. I had to comfort you for a long time before I could make you cry."
"You used to like tearing the pages off the books on the shelf and using them to fold paper airplanes. Your mother scolded you for it many times, but you still liked to be naughty."
"Once upon a time..."
Chen Xiao suddenly growled in a low voice, "Stop talking! Stop talking!!"
His face was contorted in a grimace, his muscles contorted, but then tears welled up in his eyes: "Stop talking! I...you..." His voice suddenly changed from a roar to a soft, weak tone: "Please, stop talking!"
JOKER looked at Chen Xiao, slowly took two steps forward, and then gently removed the mask from his face, revealing his true appearance.
Looking at the handsome and refined face of the man before him, Chen Xiao felt his heart be struck hard. He almost lost his balance and stumbled, only managing to steady himself by reaching out to hold onto the bookshelf.
JOKEER looked at Chen Xiao: "Now, do you still have any doubts? My son!"
"Yes!" Chen Xiao bit his lip hard, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He stared at JOKER and said in a deep voice, enunciating each word clearly:
"Why!"
JOKER remained silent, his skin still smooth, without a single wrinkle on his forehead. Then he softly murmured, "Why... do you want to ask me why..."
After a soft sigh, JOKER pointed to the sofa by the window: "Sit down, sit there. I remember you used to love lounging there, in the study, watching me read."
Chen Xiao silently walked to the windowsill and sat down on the sofa. He couldn't help but glance out the window, and to his surprise, the scenery outside was exactly like the garden outside his old house! Green lawns, fences, quiet paths, and houses in the distance...
However, he quickly calmed down and sneered, "These things, the view outside this window, are probably all fake images you created! I remember seeing a set of equipment at the headquarters of the service company that could create all sorts of images."
“My son.” JOKER turned and walked to his desk, sitting down with his hands on the table. He even took out a pack of cigarettes from the drawer, tossed one to Chen Xiao, lit it himself, and then smiled. “You know what? When you were little, I used to think about what it would be like when you grew up and became a man, and the two of us, father and son, sat together and chatted like two men. Now it seems that feeling is not bad.”
Chen Xiao looked at the cigarettes on the coffee table in front of him, hesitated for a moment, then picked them up and lit a small flame between his fingers.
"Do you know what love is?" JOKER's first question seemed a bit absurd.
He didn't really mean to ask, then pointed to his heart: "Many, many years ago, there was Lao Tian, another woman, and me. I believe you already know some of our story."
"You mean Mingyue?" Chen Xiao replied softly, thinking of Mingyue, and Mingyue's descendants... Phoenix... Chen Xiao suddenly felt that the cigarette in his mouth tasted a little bitter.
The phoenix is the offspring of my father and the bright moon... and I am my father's son... so how should this relationship be calculated?!
“Mingyue was the first woman I ever loved in this world, and I once thought she was the only one.” JOKER smiled, and the contours of his face vaguely resembled Chen Xiao’s. Then he sighed, his eyes becoming somewhat distant: “Unfortunately, I was referring to what I ‘once’ thought.”
“I believe Lao Tian told you our story. In his description, he portrayed me as a cold-blooded, emotionless, cruel bastard. He said I abandoned my family and children for a so-called sense of mission, for so-called ideals, and even did some despicable things.” JOKERR looked at Chen Xiao, then smiled. “I can tell you, every single word Lao Tian said… is true! I am exactly as he described…”
JOKER, Chen Xiao's father, the most powerful person in the world, almost omnipotent, a god-like being, said this while smiling.
"Old Tian is right, I am a bastard."
"What happened between Mingyue and me was an accident. I wasn't as powerful as I am now back then, but fate played a trick on us. I discovered that my union with Mingyue, and our offspring, would possess a magical ability: 'inheritance'! I originally thought this would be a discovery that would change the fate of all humanity! I tried to research these things almost like a madman. Back then, I was indeed very cold-blooded and cruel! Everything Lao Tian said wasn't an insult to me; he was telling the truth."
But then, you know… I failed. The research yielded no results because my offspring with Mingyue had a genetic mutation that created an incurable flaw! Succession was impossible. And at the same time, I lost Mingyue, lost family and friends. You could say I failed.
After Mingyue's death, I became colder, more ruthless, and more indifferent. I grew stronger and stronger, becoming the leader of the service society and secretly joining the club, becoming one of its tycoons... This feeling made me increasingly feel that this world was unreal.
Do you understand this feeling?
Hehe... Just like that computer game you liked to play when you were little, called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, right? You could log in with several monarch identities at the same time and control several factions... But actually, all of this was just a game to you.
That was roughly how I felt at the time!
I remain as self-righteous as ever. Even though I hurt the bright moon and my friends, I still firmly believe that I should shoulder more responsibilities! Destiny is on my side! Since I failed back then, I have not given up on finding the future path for humanity.
I've got an idea: Mingyue is from the Xiao family. So perhaps, the Xiao family carries a special bloodline and genes, and only this special bloodline can produce some amazing new changes!
So I began to secretly observe the Xiao family.